1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to providing an electrical connection between two removable components of a device.
2. Brief Description of Prior Developments
It is typical for a hand-held multimedia device and other electronic devices to have a battery cover that is easy to remove. A wireless system requires an antenna with sufficient free-volume to function well. There is a trend to integrate antennas into the outer mechanics of hand-held devices. Using a battery cover antenna (such as In-Mould Labelling (IML) antenna) maximises the antenna volume and allows for thinner/smaller products. By integrating an antenna into or onto the battery cover makes designing a reliable antenna feed contact difficult. It is typically challenging to design a reliable antenna feed method for such an antenna implementation.
To make contact to the antenna feed requires a sufficiently large contact force. As illustrated in FIG. 1, making contact between this type of battery cover antenna 10 and a printed circuit board 12 is typically done using a pogo-pin contact 14 which results in an outward force 16 against the battery cover 26. Unless the battery cover is latched at the contact point 18, the antenna contact force 16 can lead to the battery cover sitting un-flush. As illustrated in FIG. 2, this is especially true for a relatively low frequency or small antenna having a feed connection from the corner (to maximize the potential bandwidth of the antenna) as illustrated by gap 20 between the corner of the main housing cover 22 and the corner 24 of the battery cover 26. The normal force 16 on the corner of the battery cover causes the corner 24 to lift-off the edge.
In another type of embodiment, the pogo-pin feed location has been placed near the centre line of the battery cover to avoid an outer edge of the battery cover sitting un-flush. However, this cannot be used very well for a relatively low frequency or small antenna which should have a feed connection from the corner of the battery cover to maximize the potential bandwidth of the antenna.
Referring also to FIG. 3, in one type of work around for the problem, an IML antenna in a battery cover 26 that is fed by a pogo-pin contact at the corner of the battery cover still produces deflection of the corner of the battery cover. However, a lip or ridge 28 was added to the mating cover 22′ to hide the un-flush seating of the battery cover 26. The ridge 28 prevents debris from entering the battery compartment and also forms a cosmetic masking lip for hiding the gap 20 formation from the ordinary observer. Both of these implementations (1. placing the feed location at the centre line of the battery cover, and 2. providing a cosmetic masking lip 28) still use a feed method that utilizes a spring force 16 in a direction normal to the major plane of the battery cover. Thus, the problem of the spring contact force 16 deflecting a portion of the battery cover outward still exists.